Diamond Spectra

Summary table of color of diamonds

Blue	boron-containing
Blue	irradiated
Green	natural radiation
Green	irradiated
Orange	irradiated & heated
Pink	natural
Yellow	nitrogen-containing
Yellow	irradiated & heated

Images of the absorption spectra of natural color diamonds.

light yellow diamond spectrum, 7 Kbyte; This spectrum shows the effect of the nitrogen component in diamond.
light green diamond spectrum, 7 Kbyte; from Venezuela shows the effect of natural radiation which produces green color in diamond.
light pink diamond spectrum [will come soon], 7 Kbyte; from Argyle Mine, Western Australia. We do not adequately understand the origin of color in pink diamonds.

Some diamonds owe their color to laboratory irradiation. The spectra below are all of laboratory irradiated diamonds. All of the data on this page are obtained at room temperature. For laboratory testing, spectra are usually obtained a very low templeratures to make the sharper bands stand out prominently.

Irradiated diamond absorption spectra.

green irradiated diamond spectrum, 7 Kbyte; The broad absorption band, known as the GR-1 band, is the result of a radiation-induced color center.
blue irradiated diamond spectrum, 7 Kbyte;
yellow irradiated diamond spectrum, 7 Kbyte;

Synthetic diamond spectra.

A picture of a polished slice of a deep blue synthetic diamond prepared from a synthetic blue diamond made by GE (45 Kbyte) showing zonation of the boron.

External link to visible spectra of DeBeers synthetic diamonds: http://www.gis.net/~adamas/

Links to commercial sites with diamond spectra

External link to visible spectra of various colored diamonds: http://www.fandex.com/frset_fc.html featuring spectra from the Gubelin Laboratory, Switzerland. (not functional, April, 2001)

External link to numerous natural and treated diamond spectra: http://www.gis.net/~adamas/

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